Sausage Casserole – Winter Warmer

Been awhile since I’ve posted a recipe but I thought i’d start back with one of my favourite dishes despite it being a little ‘out of season’

this is generally a dish I like to make for long winter nights and as long as prep is started nice and early can be a synch to make as along with lots of my other recipes is a slow burner and its a fabulous sausage casserole. I originally got this recipe from a hairy bikers book but have since adapted it to make it my own

Ingredients:

12 sausages – the best thing about this recipe is it can be a variety i have tried with all sorts of interesting mixtures but the lasting favourite i have found is red onion stuffed sausages. whatever they are make sure they’re good quality as they are the backbone of this dish
250g of smoked bacon lardons
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp chilli powder
400g chopped tomatoes
300ml chicken stock
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp dark brown muscavado sugar
1 tbsp dried mixed herbs
100ml red wine
400g butterbeans
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Using a large frying pan brown the sausages, pricking them as you do and transfer to a large casserole dish then do the same with the lardons

next put the onions in the frying pans and fry for 5 minutes until soft then add the garlic and cook for a further two minutes once these are nicely cooked through add the chilli powder and paprika and stir until well mixed. to this add the tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and stir before adding wine and bringing to a simmer.

Carefully transfer this to the casserole dish and bring all to a simmer then loosely cover and leave for at least 30 minutes.

As with most stewing recipes the longer it can be left the better as the flavours will only develop over time.

when nearly ready to serve drain and rinse the butter beans before adding to the casserole and cook for no longer than ten minutes as any longer will make the beans lose their consistency.

Finally season to taste and serve. usually i don’t bother with anything to accompany this dish as such a hearty meal is enough but some rustic bread or mashed potato would match well with it.